Zucchero

The Italian superstar Zucchero (Adelmo Fornaciari) was born in a little village in the region of Emilia Romagna on September 25, 1955. As early as in his school years, he grew deeply interested in music and learned to play organ at the local church. He received the Zucchero name from his teacher. At 13, Zucchero discovered the Afro-American music and was strongly impressed with it. As a teenager, he formed his first band, Le Nuove Luci. Shortly after, he joined two more groups, Sugar & Daniel, and Sugar & Candies, to travel across Italy with his first performances. Zucchero got himself in the center of attention after participating in the Castrocaro festival in 1981. In a year, the young artist performed Una notte che vola via at a big event in San Remo. 1983 was the years of his releasing the debut record called Un po' di Zucchero.

Two years later, Zucchero went to the USA to record his first bluesy album. The session for Zucchero & the Randy Jackson Band involved the celebrated bassists Randy Jackson. This release featured Zucchero’s first big hit, Donne. In 1986, he released Rispetto, also made in cooperation with Jackson. This LP sold over 250,000 copies in Italy and ranked seventh in the charts. The breakthrough in Zucchero’s career came over after the release of the 1987 album Blues, the highest seller in Italy in the history to that date. It was distributed to the amount of a million and two hundred thousand. This made Zucchero a new European star and guaranteed him a successful European tour. However, the artist managed to outdo himself with releasing an even better seller, the 1989 album Oro, Incenso & Birra. There were one and half a million copies sold in Italy and two more million abroad.

In 1991, Zucchero went to the top of the British and European charts with the single Senza una Donna performed with Paul Young. Moreover, a collection of his best songs entered the British Top 20 which made it possible for him to hold several concerts in London with Eric Clapton. This was followed by Zucchero’s numerous duets with Brian Maym, Sting, Bono, Joe Cocker, Luciano Pavarotti and many other stars. In 1994, Zucchero was the only artist from the continent to take part in Woodstock. Spirito DiVino (1995) was one more commercial success to meet acclaim all over Europe. Zucchero’s concerts speedily sold out and were strongly anticipated wherever they took place. Spirito DiVino was also published in English for the UK and the USA.

The release of The Best of Zucchero's Greatest Hits (1996), featuring three new songs, was supported by a long-term tour to Canada, the States and some South America countries.The subsequent album by Zucchero was Blue Sugar (1998) and was also warmly accepted by the European audience. Its most prominent song was Blu, whose Italian lyrics were translated into English by Bono. The 1999 album Overdose D'amore was released exclusively from the USA market. In 2004, Zucchero finally published the album Zu & Co. with all the songs made in duets with many celebrities. It took sixteen years to prepare such an outstanding record. After releasing Fly (2006), Zucchero focused on the tour activity and within the following two years he managed to deliver, instead of new studio works, another collection of his hits All the Best (2007) and the record of his concert in Italy, Live in Italy (2008). The musician prepared the fresh material by 2010 and the album titled Chocabeck appeared in the shops. The record made a lot of surprises to the listeners, however all of them turned out to be good ones – the long play Chocabeck became an excellent addition to the artist’s discography.